PickMe, a Sri Lankan online cab company came under fire on social media platforms yesterday with the revelation that one of its drivers had allegedly harassed a female passenger.

A PickMe driver by the name of ‘Amal’ has sent a female would-be-passenger several text messages laced in profanity after she cancelled the ride she had booked on Sunday (9) night.

Venting on Facebook the female passenger explained that she had only cancelled the ride after the driver ‘Amal’ refused to pick up the phone even though she had called him over ten times.

In her post the passenger writes: ‘I've had issues with PickMe drivers on several occasions but have never really taken it so seriously until last night.

I reserved a PickMe tuk from my location at Havelock City last evening and unlike other drivers who call to check if the location is correct, this guy "Amal" never bothered to.

When he finally called, he was in a completely different location and I had to give him directions to where we were. For those who know the area he was down Mayura Road, near the kovil and would take approximately 5 minutes to come to Havelock City.

However, 10 minutes later the guy had still not arrived. I tried calling him on the number he called me from which is 0718770219 more than 10 times which he never picked up. I also tried through the PickMe app and that number was switched off.

After about 15 minutes, we got a lift so I cancelled the booking. The moment I cancelled it, the guy started calling me back non-stop. I picked up the first time and told me I cancelled because he did not respond and hung up. He continued calling me and when I did not pick up, proceeded to send me messages full of profanity.

I immediately called PickMe and "Kaushik" who was very nice about everything proceeded to call the driver. He then called me back and said the driver had blasted him in filth as well.

Till almost 10 in the night this driver kept calling me from different numbers until I blocked them all.

PickMe has informed me that they are investigating but I am done,’ she wrote.

She also raises the very valid point that PickMe, a taxi-hailing app, should be more careful with whom they allow to piggyback on their brand name and that drivers should be screened periodically and more often.